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Gifford Knapp's influence

You have heard it said that we are a part of everyone that we come in contact with and I would add that only once in a while does someone in your life really have a major impact. Well for me that someone was Gifford Knapp. I first met Gifford when he brought his John Deere tractor and plow to my dad's farm. My dad had hired him to plow a field for corn. I was so attracted to the process of plowing that I followed Gifford as he turned the black earth with my footsteps in his furrow.

Later on Gifford became my first boss. I worked for him for a dozen years as an operator of just one of his Cat bulldozers. We built hundreds of miles of terraces, constructed many ponds and cleared out acres of timber with those Cats all over southern Iowa and Northern Missouri.

Yes Gifford Knapp did all those things and more. His ability to think 'out of the box' made the man 'one of a kind' and a shining star of the Christian faith!